Mark Lawn wishes City could unearth a mega-rich owner like Rotherham chairman Tony Stewart.

The pair have become close pals since Stewart rescued the Millers from administration in 2008.

Stewart has pumped over £30million into the club after making his money with his commercial lighting manufacturing business and paid for the New York Stadium.

As City prepare to face Rotherham tomorrow, Lawn would love to find a similar benefactor for Valley Parade.

The Bantams joint-chairman said: “It would be nice if we could get someone like Tony. But he’s Rotherham through and through so unfortunately he can’t be swayed.

“But there are enough people in Bradford who earn that sort of money. Our door is always open.

“Julian (Rhodes) and myself do as well as we can but we don’t run any other businesses like Tony. His lighting business makes a lot of brass and he puts most of that into Rotherham.

“I’ve known Tony ever since he bought into the club and he’s the chairman I most get on with. The town of Rotherham owe him a huge gratitude for building a great, brand new stadium, as well as the money he continues to put in.

“You see what they get crowd-wise. Thanks to Tony they have a budget way beyond what you could generate otherwise.”

Rotherham’s loss at Sheffield United on Tuesday was their first since New Year’s Day. With a nine-point gap to second-placed Brentford, they are effectively ticking off the days until the play-offs.

Lawn said: “You can stagnate when you’ve got nothing to play for. The momentum sides will be the ones that do it – whether it’s the four in there now or someone like Swindon Town coming through.

“Rotherham have got to be there or thereabouts because they’ve had a very good season. Let’s face it, the play-offs are a lottery and it’s down to the form team and who can time their run.

“You saw what we did last year. If you can put a run together for the last four or five games going into the play-offs, then confidence will be high.”

City have lost their last six games against the Millers and not scored for five. Lawn hopes they can rise to the occasion on live TV to buck that trend.

He said: “A goal would be nice! But we’ve got to look to safety and a draw or a win should do it. Everybody looks at 50 points as being enough. We need to get over that as soon as we can.

“We’ve got to get Oldham out of our system and put in a proper performance. It needs to be similar to how we played at Leyton Orient and we deserved to win there.

“Last year we performed our best on the telly. It’s a local derby and I’m sure everybody will be up for it.”